


Red Tail

by morrezela



Series: Red Tail [1]
Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Angst, Homelessness, Homophobia, Little Mermaid, M/M, Tails
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-05
Updated: 2013-03-05
Packaged: 2017-12-04 08:34:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/708707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morrezela/pseuds/morrezela
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Exiled from his home for being a homosexual, merman Jensen gets caught in fisherman Jared’s nets.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Red Tail

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: merman/human sex, homophobia, outdoor sex, homelessness.
> 
> I originally intended this to be less modern day and more fairytale, but that didn’t work out. My experiences with fishing are more of the freshwater, recreational kind, so I tried to keep the details as light as possible on the fishing trips and seasons, etc.
> 
> All mistakes that you find are my own.

Being tangled up in a net was one of the most terrifying moments of Jensen’s life. He’d heard stories since he was just a little merman of the dangers of nets and hooks with shiny spinning lures. His grandfather had sported a deep gash on his fin where a fisherman’s spear had gouged him while he was trying to rescue his lady love from a human’s net.

His grandfather had almost bled out in the water. Jensen's should-have-been grandmother didn’t make it.

His granduncles and other brave merfolk braved the human harpoons to retrieve her body. Sliding across the deck of the human ship on their bellies, they’d cut her loose from the net that she’d been kept in, a trophy for the two legged spawn that stole her.

When he was little, it was a chilling horror tale that was told to enforce why one didn’t go around humans. You would end up dead, and should your carcass stay with the humans, you would bring droves of fishermen down upon your surviving family members.

But that was back in Jensen’s childhood. That was back before his tail fin thickened out and heavy muscle took the place of the lithe frame of youth. That was before he started to want to spawn with his own sex.

It wasn’t done amongst the merfolk. It wasn’t done amongst most of the human folk either, but there were some towns that did accept it. Depending on the coastline that one spied on, there would be those who were accepting and those who were not so accepting.

Whatever the percentage, it was certainly a higher amount of acceptance than Jensen got back home.

He’d been exiled from his school of merfolk for it. Getting caught looking at another merman’s form more than three times had tested the limit of the merfolk council’s patience. He’d been sent off on his own until the next spawning season in the hopes that time away from all he knew would make him realize the error of his ways.

His parents cried and his little sister clung to him until the law officers had been forced to remove her.

Mermen and mermaids were sociable creatures. Being away from the rest of the merfolk was the worst sort of punishment aside from death. Of those allowed to return, none had ever committed the same offense again. The time away would ensure that Jensen would be more than willing to spawn and settle down with the girl of his parent’s choosing if for no other reason than to avoid going out of his mind with loneliness.

Being exiled meant that he had to stay away from merfolk dwellings even those not of one’s own school. That, in turn, meant either swimming in dangerous human waters or living in poor feeding areas and risk becoming sick or even starving to death.

At first Jensen had gone with the second option.

His hope had been that he would get ill and pass away. It was better than pining for his family and their warm camaraderie. It was preferable to remembering the soul crushing grief that had been on his parent’s faces when the head mermaid had sentenced him to be sent away. Nobody expected him to survive, not really, and there were a good many who would gladly see him a corpse before allowing him to spawn with their daughters upon his return. They couldn’t risk their grandchildren being born twisted like him.

But Jensen had always been a little bit of a slave to his stomach, and eventually the rotting seaweed of his dying cove had not been enough to sate his belly. He’d gone out into open water, his tail and skin rejoicing at washing off the algae and scum that had build onto it while he languished in fetid water.

He’d been so hungry that he didn’t notice the net skimming through the waters as he munched away on fresh growth. His only warning had been the fluttering of hundreds of fins and gills as the fish in the net tried to escape its pull.

By then it was too late. Moments later, Jensen was being hoisted into the air, tail and all.

It wasn’t the first time that he had been fully exposed to air and sun. He was a merman not a fish. He quite enjoyed pulling himself onto a rock and baking in the heat of the sun. His mother complained because it gave him all manner of dots on his skin when he did it, and his tail developed dark stripes. It was out of style to have such camouflaged looks. Mordern merfolk preferred the solid colors to variant shadings that allowed them to hide amongst other sea life when in clear waters.

If Jensen didn’t go out in the sun, he was very even toned. His skin was a pale ivory that shown against the reds and yellows of his tail. His green eyes were a rarity amongst his people. While many had the advantageous blues and greens in their fins, few had such color in their eyes.

A loud barking noise greeted Jensen as he landed on the fisherman’s deck with a thump. Cold, slimy fish wriggled against him, and he tried to focus on the feeling of terror that being caught inspires instead of the disgust he felt for the creatures surrounding and touching him. It wasn’t their fault that they were so horrible when out of the water.

A second bark joined the first, and Jensen fought the urge to clap his hands over his ears. He’d seen plenty of dogs frisking about in shallow waters when he’d crept close to human occupied coastlines, but they’d always been a bit of distance away from him, not right up close.

He’d definitely never been sniffed by one before. Make that licked. And Triton, if getting licked by one wasn’t almost as bad as the bath of fish he was suddenly enduring.

“Sadie, what’re you doing over there?” A booming human voice asked, and the smaller dog yapped happily at the man’s question.

“You know better than to follow Harley’s bad manners; you silly girl. Who is going to make me look good at the dog park if you start acting like him?”

This time Harley, so Jensen assumed the bigger dog’s name was, started barking too. Apparently he was offended by his master’s comment. Jensen didn’t blame him. Wasn’t barking at strange things what dogs did?

“Okay, okay. What’s all the…. HOLY OF MOTHER FUCKING! JESUS ON A… FUCK. FUCK, I’m not. There was something in that beer. God, please, I swear that I won’t lie to Momma anymore about not drinking on the boat. Jesus.”

Jensen opened his eyes from the terrified clench that they had shut into when the human started yelling. The man was whiter than Jensen’s own pale skin. His eyes were wide and scared looking, and if Jensen wasn’t mistaken, his very large hand was shaking.

For a being about to hunt down merfolk and string them up as trophies, he looked remarkably unthreatening even with his enormous size.

The large man closed his eyes and took several deep breaths before opening them again. “Fuck he’s still there,” he whispered.

Jensen wasn’t sure if Jared was still talking to God or his dogs, but it was sort of rude not to actually address the poor merman stuck in the pool of dying fish.

“I think that you have established that I am here.” Jensen snapped, then thought better of insulting the giant human, “uh, gracious and noble fisherman of the deep.”

“It talks! I mean, you talk! You speak English even! And I’ve imprisoned you! I’ve got you tied up with fish. They aren’t your cousins are they?”

Jensen wanted to be insulted, but really, the man seemed so earnest and nice. Like he actually felt bad for catching what was to him a mythical creature in his net. Then there was the fact that Jensen hadn’t had a conversation in what felt like forever.

“I’m not a fish.”

“No, no of course not you’re a, a mer-guy?”

“Merman.”

“Oh, guess I should’ve paid attention to those stories my little sister used to read, huh?”

Jensen stared at him in response.

“Right. Let me just get my knife…”

Jensen hissed at the mention of weaponry. Not that he could do much except for bite at the man’s ankles should he come too close. Not being able to stand had severe disadvantages when a merman tried to fight on any dry surface.

“Or not,” the man said as he held his hands up in a sign of surrender.

“I’d prefer you just let me go.” Jensen suggested, hoping that maybe the human’s fear of him would allow the act.

“I was planning on it? But you’re like, over six feet long, so I’m not sure that I can untwist the net from you, ‘cause no offense, but you look kind of heavy.”

“You were going to cut the net?”

“Dude of course! What did you think I was going to do with my knife, start filleting the fish?”

Jensen would’ve rubbed the back of his neck if his hand wasn’t twisted into the ropes that made up his prison. “Stab me?”

The man paled even more. “I’m not a murderer! I… I donate regularly to the local animal shelter. I donate fresh fish to the soup kitchen!”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“It’s a place where unwanted animals get sent, and you can adopt them. I got my kids there.” The man said as he bent to rub at the heads of the two dogs who were now sitting at his feet.

“Not that. The soup kitchen?” Jensen had heard the murkier waters be referred to as ‘soupy’ by various humans in their boats. He knew not why there would be a kitchen hosting such a thing.

“They make soup for homeless people so they can eat.”

Well, that sort of made sense. After all, Jensen was homeless, and he’d certainly been hungry enough to be eating in soupy waters not only a day before. He supposed that fish parts couldn’t make the water that much worse. As he understood it, humans would put the fish they caught in fires or great heat that would make the flesh tasty. It was an odd concept to him, but then again, one couldn’t light a fire underwater. Maybe if his people could, they would also catch the slimy fish and eat them.

Triton knew that Jensen was very tired of kelp and the other vegetation that grew in the water.

“Oh,” he answered as the man kept staring at him.

“Yeah, so can I get my knife now?”

Jensen nodded, and the man left his sight, big boots clomping on the deck. The human returned a minute later with a very sharp looking knife in one hand and an odd pair of metal pincers in the other.

“Let’s get you out of there.”

Jensen nodded, and watched as the human began to snip and saw at Jensen’s bindings. Up close, he could see the pretty slant of the human’s eyes and the way that they enhanced the color of his irises. His face was beautiful, and had he been a merman, Jensen would have swept his eyes down to check the color of his tail and the curve of his lower back.

Even without the allure of a tail, the strength of the human’s muscles was appealing, and Jensen’s body responded. His tail fin tried to flare out, and his manhood tried to slide out from its hiding place.

It was mortifying. He had heard stories of mermaids that had fallen in love with human males at first sight and cast themselves upon rocks when all hope was lost. He had never thought himself to be such a creature, but apparently his depravity was not limited to just yearning after males of his own kind.

“All done,” the human told him as he tugged at the last bit of rope.

Jensen slid out onto the deck, fish flopping around him. To their credit, the dogs did not so much as sniff at the irksome creatures though the larger one did take a hesitant step forward to scent at Jensen.

He tried to roll away, but only succeeded in flopping about on the deck himself. It was embarrassing, but it quelled his body’s unwanted reaction to the human.

“Dude, don’t struggle. You’ll hurt yourself.”

“My name is not ‘Dude.’ Why must you call me that?” Jensen snarled as he managed to flip back onto his backside and prop his torso up by using his arms as supports behind him.

“Well, I don’t know your name.” The human answered with a big grin.

The smile was very white. Jensen wondered how much coral the fisherman had ground up to scrub at his teeth to achieve such a shine.

“I do not know your name either, yet I do not call you ‘Dude.’”

“Jared,” the human announced as he stuck his gloved hand in Jensen’s face.

Jensen stared at the hand for a moment before putting one of his own in its grasp. From the look on Jared’s face he was at least a little bit surprised that Jensen knew what to do. Thankfully handshakes and hugging were shared across their species.

“Jensen.”

“Wow. That’s really pretty. I mean, uh, very – is that Nordic?”

A pleased smile came across Jensen’s face. “It is okay to call me pretty. It is not an insult to us. And yes, Mother overheard it on a migration to colder waters. Father had a job up near what you humans call Norway.”

“Cool, well, pleased to meet you, Jensen. Sorry I, uh, caught you.”

“Sorry I ruined your net.” Jensen said. He wasn’t actually all that sorry, but it seemed like the polite thing to say after Jared willingly sacrificed it for Jensen’s comfort.

“I guess we’d better get you back in the water, huh?”

Jensen felt a pang of sadness at the comment. It was true. He couldn’t hang out on a boat deck without the chance of getting seen by other humans. But Jared was decent enough company, and he wasn’t shunning Jensen.

Still, if Jensen believed in wish fulfillment, he’d wish himself straight. He’d wish that he’d been able to successfully spawn with any of the mermaids he’d tried with. He’d wish himself back home to his protective older brother and adoring little sister and the parents that loved him.

Wishes were for fools.

With another handshake goodbye, Jared hoisted Jensen up in his arms, much to Jensen’s dismay, and dropped him in the water.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jensen had no excuse for following Jared’s boat, but it was easy enough to keep up with it and keep out of sight by swimming just under the belly of it. The bow of the ship broke the water resistance quite nicely, and it was almost relaxing.

It wasn’t as if he had somewhere else to be after all.

He was still starving for a bite, but he figured he could get that just as soon as he figured out where Jared was headed.

Not that he needed to know. It was just that Jared seemed like a decent sort of guy. He had dogs. Weren’t humans with healthy dogs supposed to be nice people or something?

They passed by several nice ports, big boats causing interference with the break that Jared’s smaller boat made, but they didn’t pull in to any of them. They trolled along the coastline for quite a way before the boat moored in at a rather old looking dock in a deep, if very small and rocky, cove.

Jensen could hear Jared yelling to his dogs and the scrape of coolers being moved. He didn’t announce his presence. Couldn’t come up with a good enough reason to have followed Jared. It wasn’t as if he was able to say that the fisherman had left anything behind that Jensen could claim to be returning.

Eventually, the noises on the ship ceased and there was no more clumping on the disturbingly ill kept dock.

Jensen poked his head above water to spy a cozy looking cottage with a stone footpath leading up to it. He could see where part of the roof had been patched over in different colored shingles, but the gardens rolling down the hill from the house were beautiful in their unkempt glory.

The dock had a few planks that had been replaced, but barnacles grew on the undersides and the algae that clung to the supports would cause rot sooner rather than later. It surprised Jensen because Jared’s boat seemed to be in fairly good repair, but then again if the man was a fisherman, he could hardly afford to destroy his means of living.

Which was exactly what he had done when he’d cut Jensen free.

It wasn’t fair that such a nice human should be in such dire straits. He had held a fortune in the palm of his hand when Jensen had been caught in his net, and instead of dragging back his trophy, he’d further injured himself by willfully damaging his net and hampering his source of support.

Peeved at having harmed another, however innocently, Jensen dove back under the deck and searched for a sharp rock. Plucking a muck covered one from the very bottom of the cove, he swam back up and began to scrape at the crud weighing on Jared’s deck.

After a while, Jensen’s arms tired from the exertion, and his stomach began to growl loudly.

Wedging his rock between two submerged boulders so that he could easily find it later, Jensen swam about the cove to collect dinner. Pickings were scarce. For all that the manmade dock was in disrepair, the cove seemed to have good current in it that kept down the plankton and algae. The clean water was nice, but the lack of snack material was depressing.

Still, he wasn’t breathing in slimy sand particles so he couldn’t exactly complain. Besides, he was only going to be there as long as it took to repay the favor that Jared had done him. He could live off the tasteless stuff he could find until he was done and could go find better foraging grounds.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jensen got into a daily routine. He’d wait until Jared left for the day (whether it be into the city in his big truck or out to fish in his not so big boat) and then would work on the dock.

He wished that he had lumber and possibly some new hardware to fix the cracking boards and rusty fastenings, but he did what he could with his rock. The barnacles and other parasites would grow back, but it would buy Jared some months where he wouldn’t have to spend his money, and that was going to have to be good enough.

The work went slower than Jensen had expected, but it wasn’t as if he had anywhere else to swim to, and he hated to leave projects unfinished.

At home he had been working on a sea shell collection that made the most wondrous of musical vibrations when you hit upon them. All of his friends had been impressed. They’d hardly been able to wait until he completed it so that they could see how much it would go for at market.

Jensen wondered if it still existed waiting for his ‘fixed’ return or if the council had ordered it destroyed as the creative work of a deviant.

Dismissing the thought as useless, Jensen hauled himself out of the water to eat his lunch. Food was growing scarce in Jared’s little cove, but he dared not wander outside of it. There were too many fishing vessels nearby docking in the larger commercial ports. While they might not cast their nets so close to shore, there was always the chance that their depth finders or other instruments would find Jensen and some nosy fisherman would investigate so abnormal a shape in the water.

The sun had been working its magic on his skin. Brown spots were bursting out all over and the red in his tail was starting to get deep, dark stripes in it. He decided that he didn’t care. It wasn’t as if there was anyone around that would see him to care what state he’d slipped into, and he liked the fresh air and the feel of the breeze.

Naturally, his little respite couldn’t last forever. He hadn’t expected it to. He just never thought it would end like it did.

The day started out gray and a little rainy. The dogs had whined and dragged their paws when Jared loaded them on the boat early in the morning, but they’d gone where their master told them to.

Jensen personally didn’t get it. Rain was like having land and sea all at once. Rain was awesome. The fog that started rolling in later? That was close to Utopia.

He’d taken the opportunity to drag himself onto the surface of the dock so that he could drape over the side and work from above. When the tide went out, it was difficult to maintain the level of height that he needed to reach certain spots. The fog would obscure him from any pleasure craft boating by, and Jared would be gone fishing for a long time.

Jensen was humming to himself, flipping the tip of his tail against the wooden planks to keep a beat when he heard the sound of a boat motor echoing in the cove. It was too close to be a ship passing by, and he panicked as he grabbed hold of the dock to try to pull himself back into the water.

It hurt to wriggle against the rough surface, but he kept going.

He didn’t make it.

The boat bumped up against the dock before he could slip over the side.

His only consolation was that it was Jared and not some other fisherman pulling into the wrong port in the confusion of the fog.

“Jensen?” Jared sounded bewildered as he called from his ship. Of course the fog couldn’t be so generous as to be thick enough to obscure Jensen’s rather prominent tail from view.

“Hi,” Jensen said as nonchalantly as he could when he was hanging half on and half off a crappy wooden dock and had splinters in his tail.

“What’re you doing here?” Jared asked as he got off his boat and clomped over.

What an excellent question, pity Jensen didn’t have an answer.

“I was, umm…”

“Are you okay? You look horrible.” Jared interrupted as those beautiful eyes raked over Jensen’s form.

“It’s perfectly natural to stripe! Triton, you sound like my mother.” Jensen snapped.

Jared looked confused for a moment before his eyes drifted down to Jensen’s tail. “Dude, not that. I mean, you look like you haven’t been eating. I didn’t like, damage some sort of mermaid organs did I?”

“You don’t have much to eat around here.” Jensen stupidly said in reply.

“What do you… have you been out in the bay all this time?”

So apparently Jared’s poor maintenance of the dock was not indicative of his intelligence level. “I was just trying to repay your kindness.” Jensen defended himself.

“By starving yourself?”

“By trying to maintain your dock. In case you haven’t noticed, it isn’t in the best of conditions.” Jensen said with an expansive hand sweep.

“And you couldn’t say ‘hello’?”

“I didn’t want to disturb you. I didn’t think that it would take this long.”

“But, I would’ve brought you a fish or something.”

Jensen wrinkled his nose. “I don’t eat fish, Jared. I’m not a dolphin.”

“But you’re all… And when I let you go you were more…” Jared trailed off with vague hand gestures that Jensen assumed were meant to imply that he used to be broader.

“And before that I was more, ‘more.’ It’s nothing. I was going to end up dying anyway; you might as well get some work done while I’m busy doing it.”

“Dying?” Jared looked distinctly unhappy with that word.

“It’s a very distinct possibility with a merman in my state, yes.”

“Do you like, have an illness or something? I have a friend who is a doctor and another that’s a really good vet. I bet if I asked them I could like, maybe find some medicine for you? We’ve got great drugs up on land. Maybe we’ve got something that could help you.”

Jensen laughed bitterly and shook his head. “I’m homeless, Jared. I need a, what did you call them, a slurry kitchen?”

“Soup kitchen,” Jared corrected, “and you’re really homeless? You don’t look like you are.”

Jensen sighed and shook his head. He might as well put Jared out of his misery. “I’m ostracized from my people. I cannot spawn properly with a female, so I am exiled for a year to correct my mental flaws. But we cannot live for long without companionship, so most of us end up starving or killing ourselves or getting killed by human fishing vessels.”

Jared looked outraged. “That’s horrible! My God, you have erectile dysfunction, and you get shunned for it? Dude, we’ve got these pills called Viagra, and I’m not sure they’ll help, but you’re almost my size, and you’re mammal-like. I’ll go get a prescription, and we’ll get you a waterproof bottle and…”

“Jared. I’m not, not flaccid. I’m deviant. I find other males attractive.” Jensen blushed and looked away. Humans were more tolerant, but there were still those that very much were not.

“You’re gay? I managed to not only fish a mermaid out of the water, but a gay one too?” Jared squeaked.

“Merman, Jared, emphasis on the man. “

“Fuck that. Fuck that entirely.”

Jensen scowled. “I assure you that I am very much male, and if you so much as…”

“Dude, not that. I mean, look, you need a place to crash? You can hang here. I’ll go buy you vegetarian sushi or something, and you can work it off by fixing the dock.”

Jensen fidgeted, embarrassed by his own outburst and unsure of what to do with such kindness.

“You’d be doing me a favor.” Jared continued, turning on the most earnest look Jensen had ever seen. “Have you seen how much I’ve got to do around here?”

“I eat a lot. You cannot afford to feed another person.” Jensen said slowly.

“Veggies are cheap.”

“I…”

“Pasta and rice then.”

“But…”

“Come on, don’t make me beg here. It’s like a thing with me to help the needy.”

“You are needy.” Jensen corrected.

“Then help me help myself.” Jared answered with his sunny grin.

Who was Jensen to say ‘no’?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Things returned to normal except for the fact that when Jared came back from market each day, he’d come outside and hang around with Jensen. He’d bring all manner of fruits and vegetables and grains along with tools and materials for working on the dock that were far better than the rocks that Jensen had scavenged.

Jared was fun to be around, and he talked to Jensen like he was a real person.

He confessed to thinking he was going crazy because he kept hearing a male voice singing in the cove, but there was never anyone there. He swore that he thought he was being haunted because it was so lovely and yet so sad at the same time.

Jensen had merely blushed and mumbled his apologies. He’d forgotten how sound could carry across open water and echoing rock. The most famous of mermaids could lure lonely sailors to their deaths with their songs. There was a reason that their voices were legendary.

Jared told him about how he inherited the place from his grandmother’s brother. The man had never married and had no illegitimate children thanks to him being a homosexual in a time when it wasn’t accepted in any way, shape or form.

The place had deteriorated when Jared’s granduncle’s health started to go, but the privacy of it and the amount of land attached to the property made it a goldmine that Jared had been advised to sell as soon as the deed was signed over to him.

Several relatives had asked him to do it, but he couldn’t. His granduncle had given it to him in good faith. He’d given it to his only gay relative because he wanted to make sure that Jared had a place that couldn’t be taken away from him. Even though Jared’s world was far different from the one that he had grown up in, he had feared that Jared would be left with nothing one day because of his orientation.

Jared laughed a sad little laugh at the story, but Jensen could easily understand where the old man had been coming from. And Jared obviously did as well, because he’d given up on his other career plans to take over the small fishing business that his granduncle had fought to build.

Sometimes when Jensen was hard at work on the dock and Jared was outside exercising the dogs or working on the exterior of the cottage, Jensen would catch Jared staring at him. There was a softness in his gaze that made Jensen’s heart pound. It was frightening, but what was scarier was when Jensen caught himself staring back.

Then, out of the blue, Jared kissed him. There was no prelude, no soft sweet words. There was only a look of determination and a kiss. Then another. And another. By the fourth kiss, Jensen was dragging Jared down next to him and kissing as hard as he could back.

After a dozen or so kisses, Jared pulled away. Resting a hand on Jensen’s waist, he smiled down at him.

They didn’t exchange any words. They didn’t need to.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the days passed, Jensen finished with the dock. It was as repaired as he could make it short of ripping out the supports and starting over, but he didn’t leave.

Jared’s assortment of food was far better than all but the grandest of holiday feasts that he’d had back home, and Jared’s company was far superior to most of the mermen that Jensen had the pleasure of knowing. It was definitely better than the loneliness that he’d experienced before meeting the fisherman.

To keep him from becoming bored and swimming off, Jared would sometimes insist that Jensen come with him on his fishing excursions. It wasn’t necessary, but Jensen agreed because as much as he had come to love the little cove, his stomach was starting to soften with the lack of dedicated swimming.

Not that Jared would listen to him about how fast he could swim and how it wasn’t truly tiring. Once they were out in open water and far enough away from any other boats, Jared would slow his own vessel down and demand that Jensen come up on deck.

It was embarrassing to crawl around on his belly while Jared worked, but after a few false starts, the dogs thought him fine sport to play with and constantly bugged him for attention. It actually wasn’t all that dissimilar to the way that their master acted once he was free from whatever duties beset him that day.

They kissed a fair bit, and after a while, Jared started touching Jensen while they kissed. At first it was a simple touch to his face or a lingering squeeze of a hand. Jared’s fingertips would brush over Jensen’s throat, resting just over the place where Jensen’s pulse would flutter against his skin.

Then it was Jensen’s shoulders and hair and eventually his nipples and belly.

Jensen returned that favor, but neither let their hands drift too far downwards. It wasn’t that Jensen didn’t want to or didn’t know how the human male anatomy worked. It just seemed rude to be the first to touch when Jared appeared to be so hesitant. It would be like daring him to touch, and Jensen didn’t want that.

He didn’t want his sun warmed kisses to turn uncomfortable.

One day, Jensen was perched on a rock in Jared’s cove watching the sun settle down into the horizon. Jared had gone into town, and while the dogs had played with Jensen for a while, they had long since tired themselves out and returned to the relative comfort of the cottage deck.

The hesitant tread of booted feet let Jensen know that Jared was approaching. The shoreline out to the point that Jensen was sitting on was easy enough to get onto if one swam out to it, but uneven and slippery if one walked on the land, or so Jared told him. He didn’t exactly have feet to be testing out the human’s truthfulness.

“Hey,” Jared said as he flopped down next to Jensen like the short climb had actually exhausted his insane energy levels.

“Good time in town?” Jensen asked softly. It wasn’t that he meant his voice to be that way, but Jared’s sharp features were catching the fading light just the right way, and it made him even more beautiful than normal.

“I got some good prices for today’s catch. Got some better discounts on the week’s food supplies, so it wasn’t terrible. Glad to be home though.” Jared told him.

“Good, good that is…”

Jared cut him off with a kiss. His tongue stroked inside of Jensen’s mouth, and his giant hands seemed to be stroking everywhere at once.

“Been wanting that all day.” Jared mumbled against Jensen’s lips before slamming his own back against them.

The odd urgency of it all combined with the mood lighting, as Jared would call it, conspired against Jensen’s body. His tail fins stiffened, and he pushed his body against Jared’s, overbalancing the human so that he rolled onto his back, Jensen’s tail settling between his long legs.

Jared didn’t seem to mind as his hands slid down Jensen’s back to grasp at what Jensen had learned humans called a ‘booty.’ Jared firmed his hold and pulled, pushing Jensen close to him and causing friction between them. The action made Jensen shiver.

To his embarrassment, he felt his penis extend from his body. It pushed past its protective covering and out to full hardness, rubbing against the not so soft material of Jared’s jeans.

It wasn’t that Jensen hadn’t seen Jared become aroused before. The human would often walk away from one of their encounters with a funnily shaped bulge at the apex of his thighs. It was normal for them though. Human bodies were apt to engage in sexual contact more readily than that of a merman.

But Jensen exposing himself in such a way was shameful. He didn’t, couldn’t wear the clothing that Jared hid his erections behind. He only had the way that his body naturally kept his reproductive organs from view, and it was his responsibility to keep his urges in check. He wasn’t an adolescent merman anymore, and Jared hadn’t chosen to expose himself out in the air like an exhibitionist, so there was no call for such unacceptable behavior.

Underneath Jensen, Jared froze, no doubt in reaction to the feel of Jensen’s arousal.

Jensen pushed his torso up, parting contact with Jared’s body. His tail still twitched restlessly in want, and he didn’t know how to remove himself from Jared completely without being wholly indecent.

“Whoa, where are you going?” Jared’s low voice had turned husky, and his hands didn’t move from their resting place on the backside of Jensen’s tail.

“I… I’m indecent.” Jensen whispered as if it would make the fact less shameful.

“Yeah, I noticed.” Jared grinned at him. “I was starting to worry that mermen didn’t have, you know, dicks or something - couldn’t think of how to ask without sounding like a real jerk or a total girl.”

“You don’t mind?”

Jared rolled his hips up once. “That feel like I mind? Dude, I’ve been grinding against you for a while now. I was starting to feel like a total perv.”

“But you’re covered. I’m exposed.”

“So? You were naked the first day I met you. I’m not blind.”

“But I…”

Jared sat up, causing Jensen to shift and end up sitting crosswise in the human’s lap, his tail draped over one of Jared’s long legs. Jared pressed a quick kiss to his mouth then looked down at Jensen’s now exposed penis.

“I admit that I didn’t think it would be blue. Kind of makes blue balls not so much of a threat, huh?”

Jensen fought back the urge to cover himself with his hands or flip so that he could hide his manhood with his body.

“Yours is not? We are both warm blooded mammals. I don’t understand.” Jensen said stupidly.

Jared just shrugged. “Well it’s a good thing neither of us are biologists. Frankly, I could care less what color your dick is. I was more worried that your tail was going to be slimy or scaly or something.”

“Like a fish? Jared, that’s gross!”

Jared laughed and pressed another kiss against Jensen’s cheek. “I thought so. It was quite the conundrum, you know? On the one hand, really hot guy. On the other, slime.”

“You could’ve asked or touched sooner or maybe looked more closely.” Jensen pointed out.

“It’s shiny! How was I supposed to know?!”

“Perhaps if you just paid more attention, you… Jared!” Jensen squeaked when Jared wrapped a hand around his still exposed erection.

“Yes?”

“I, uh, I can’t think.”

“Good. The point isn’t to think. It’s to feel good.”

“But, but you aren’t. I’m not,” Jensen gasped as Jared’s thumb started moving around the tip of his cock. His brain kept skipping track as Jared touched him, but he knew that Jared was no longer hard underneath him, and reciprocation was key for sexual endeavors.

“Jared. Stop.” Jensen ordered as he grabbed hold of Jared’s wrist.

“What’s wrong?”

“I can’t just, just take.” Jensen said as he wiggled a little on Jared’s lap hoping that Jared would catch the hint.

“Oh, don’t worry about him. He’ll be catching up again soon. He’s just more of an action kind of guy. Doesn’t like all the talking.” Jared assured him. “Now, your little guy on the other hand, seems to be the long haul sort.”

Jensen closed his eyes and buried his face in Jared’s shoulder in shame. It was true. He could never reach completion before the end of a spawning swim, never able to imagine himself elsewhere enough to achieve satisfaction with a female. It had left him homeless and alone.

“Hey, hey now. Don’t hide from me like that. Staying power is good. It’s awesome.”

Jensen snorted. “Maybe in your world.”

Jared pressed his lips to Jensen’s neck. “Well, you’re in my world now, so you’re just going to have to go with my sex rules, blue dick and all.”

Jensen didn’t have an answer for that except to kiss Jared again. The human’s large hand felt good on Jensen’s cock, and he could feel the beginnings of Jared’s returning erection. He very much wanted to pleasure Jared. He wanted to know more of male touches and kissing.

Their kisses turned demanding as Jared’s hand continued to squeeze and pull while his tongue pushed inside Jensen’s mouth. The hand that Jared didn’t have wrapped around Jensen’s cock was settled on Jensen’s waist, its thumb rhythmically stroking the place where Jensen’s torso blended into the top of his tail.

“Jared, you need to stop.” Jensen moaned more than said as he pulled his mouth away.

“Yeah? Why’s that?” Jared asked.

“I’m going to orgasm, and you’re not even out of your trousers yet.” Jensen explained.

Jared laughed throatily. “They’re called jeans, and that is easily fixed.”

The hand on Jensen’s waist tightened while the one on his dick disappeared. He felt it brush against him moments later as Jared popped the button and lowered the zipper on his pants.

Jared let out a little moan, and Jensen’s dick twitched at the sound.

“Better?” Jared said as his hand returned to cup loosely around Jensen’s cock.

Jensen darted a glance down at the small gap between their bodies. He could see the very tip of Jared’s penis. It was rounded, similar to Jensen’s own, but it was an angry, dark red color that looked more like the beginnings of a bruise than anything particularly pleasurable, but it didn’t appear to be causing pain.

“Much,” Jensen whispered as his eyes focused back on Jared’s face.

“Good,” Jared murmured as he started his stroking up again.

Jensen leaned to nip gently at Jared’s jaw. Jared pushed up with his hips causing his cock to rub against the side of Jensen’s tail.

“Jared,” Jensen whispered against the human’s throat as he kissed his way down it.

Jared grunted in acknowledgment and increased the pace of his touches. He squeezed just the tiniest bit harder on Jensen’s dick and swept over the head of it with his thumb.

Jensen came with a choked back yell, the end of his tail flaring out, and his hips jerking up as if to bury himself inside of a body that just wasn’t there. His body trembled with aftershocks, and he could do nothing but lean against Jared as the man reached down to bring himself to climax as well, splashing his seed warmly against Jensen’s tail.

Had he done the honorable thing and assisted Jared in reaching completion, Jensen would complain about the wet mess. As he hadn’t, he just pressed another kiss against the shoulder he was resting against.

“Huh, it’s all pearlescent.” Jared said.

“What?”

“Your spunk. It’s like, got different colors mixed in with the white. Kind of rainbow colored.”

“Triton, Jared! Do you really have to talk about it?”

“I’ve never jerked a merman off before! I’m not supposed to be curious?”

“You’re not supposed to talk about it.” Jensen corrected.

“Well, too bad. Guess you’re going to have to forgive me for being uncouth. Hey, can we consider this out first relationship fight? Can we have makeup sex now?”

“We just… Surely you can’t already be able to… Are humans able to recover that quickly?”

Jared laughed. “Only in our minds, big guy.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jared spent a good deal of time trying to coax Jensen’s manhood out of hiding. It was like once he’d seen it he couldn’t get enough of it.

Not that Jensen objected to that. He had grown quite fond of Jared’s odd looking penis himself.

As the seasons changed and the weather turned colder, Jared’s desire to whip his dick out in the great outdoors declined. Jensen tried suggesting that they do it in the water, but Jared seemed to like that idea even less. It made sense in a way – humans seemed to like being near the water not necessarily in it.

Still, Jared was more than happy to wander out in what he called sweatpants. Jensen didn’t see why they were called that as they seemed rather warm to him, not something you’d wear if you were sweating, but he didn’t wear any clothing, so he couldn’t truly judge. In any case, Jared liked to ‘free ball’ in his so called sweats and would happily allow Jensen to palm his ‘junk’ though the material until he climaxed.

It was imperfect, but then Jensen’s whole life was imperfect. He didn’t exactly have cause to complain.

Fall brought with it storms that made Jared stay home for fear that his small fishing vessel would not be able to withstand the wrath of the sea. Of course, once he secured the safety of his person and his dogs, Jared transferred all his worry onto Jensen. He seemed incapable of understanding that Jensen was perfectly fine under the surface of the water.

“But, the water’s looking agitated now. The weather watch says it’s only going to get worse.” Jared complained, staring down at Jensen from his place on the dock.

Jensen swished his tail back and forth and tried to remain calm like he hadn’t explained this all to Jared before. “So I go deeper into the water. It isn’t like I need to come up to breathe.”

“But the cove isn’t that deep! What if you get tossed up on shore? What if you get thrown against the rocks, and I don’t know? What if I’m inside, sipping on hot cocoa and you’re out here hurt, and I can’t hear you because of the wind?”

“Look, if it gets that bad, I’ll just swim out of here and go deeper.”

Jared’s face dropped even farther that its previous worried frown at that. “Out of the cove?”

“Yes, out of the cove. It’s not a big deal. Been doing this all my life, you know?”

“But…”

“But what, Jared?”

“Can’t you just come inside?”

Jensen very carefully did not snort at him. After all, Jared was a really great guy offering his cove, companionship and other more pleasurable pursuits to Jensen.

“Yes, give me a second. Let me just grow legs and take a stroll.”

Jared scowled at him and pointed to the deck. “Come up here.”

“So that I can be higher up in the wind that’s making you shiver? No thanks.”

“Please? I don’t like fighting with you when you’re down there.”

And could Jensen say no to that? Of course he couldn’t, so he dove under the water, swam back a bit and took a fast jump out of the water to land on the dock.

“Happy now?” He asked as he twisted around so that he could at least sit and look at Jared’s thigh.

“Ecstatic,” Jared replied as he squatted down.

Jensen presumed that Jared was making the move so that he could look at Jensen more comfortably. He wasn’t so right about his assumption.

Turned out Jared was crouching down so that he could scoop Jensen up in his arms.

“What are you doing?” Jensen complained as Jared began to walk back towards the cabin.

“Taking you inside. Don’t worry. I’ve got a hot tub full of water that I brought up from the cove so you can be wet.”

“Because that was clearly what I’m concerned about.” Jensen drawled sarcastically. “Jared, mermen don’t go in houses.”

“Well, where I come from, mermen don’t exist at all, so I say we wing it.”

“This is kidnapping!”

“Oh, like I’m not going to put you back out there when the weather gets better. You’re just being stubborn and talking about leaving home for some bad weather when you could be inside my nice cottage with two dogs and a human who absolutely adore you and want to introduce you to the wonders of television.”

“Put me down.” Jensen demanded.

“On the cement walkway or the muddy lawn? Don’t be ridiculous. You’d hurt yourself crawling back.”

“Okay, then put me back.”

“Aw, come on. Please, Jen?”

“Do not shorten my name like that. It’s Jensen. It will stay Jensen. It is two syllables. It won’t wear your tongue out to form the second one.”

“Okay, okay. Huffy.” Jared mumbled as he bumped against the door that had obviously been left slightly ajar as it gave way immediately.

Jared went through the doorway sideways, in what Jensen assumed was a maneuver designed to keep his tail from getting scraped on the doorposts.

“You planned this.” He hissed accusingly.

“I thought that was sort of implied with the hot water tub full of sea water.” Jared said as he dodged around the two curious dogs who were stumbling around their feet, sniffing at Jensen excitedly.

“Go lay down.” Jensen ordered them when Harley darted forward fast enough to lick the end of his tail.

“Aw, they missed you.” Jared said as he took them through another doorway into a room with a large, square tub in the middle of it.

Without preamble, Jared hefted Jensen into the surprisingly warm and clean water.

“My granduncle had this installed on the main floor so he didn’t have to go down in the basement or outside to relieve his ‘aching muscles’ when he got older. I personally think he had some parties in it, but Momma hates it when I say that. Uh, anyway, I drained it out and cleaned it so there shouldn’t be any chemicals left in it. I’m not sure how hot you can take your water, but it’s called a hot tub for a reason, so you can turn this dial here, and it’ll heat up. Oh, and this one will turn the jets on so it makes bubbles.” Jared rambled, shifting his weight from foot to foot as if he was nervous.

Jensen looked at him evenly before using his tail to flick water over the edge of the tub at him. The splash was quite impressive, soaking down the human’s hair and dribbling down the front of his shirt. Silently, Jensen congratulated himself for his fine motor skills on tail manipulation.

“I was already wet.” Jared complained as he wiped water away from his face.

“You were wet,” Jensen agreed, “now you’re soaking.”

“I just wanted to spend more time with you.” Jared muttered, looking very unhappy.

Jensen tried to hold on to his anger, he really did. But he kind of loved Jared, and he understood the desire to be closer.

“Well, go dry off then and bring me something to eat. I’m starving, and I seem to be incapable of foraging for supper on my own.”

Jared sent him an uncertain smile at that, and Jensen felt his own face cave into a sunnier expression in return.

Jared fairly skipped out of the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first night that Jensen stayed in the cabin he didn’t sleep in Jared’s hot tub. Close proximity to each other without other distractions typically led to much kissing and groping, and they did not break pattern.

Somewhere between the movie about people with glowing swords and talking robots and the so called ‘infomercial’ selling something called a ‘Snuggie,’ Jared went from sitting next to the tub to crawling into it.

That right there had been distracting enough because Jared had stripped out of all of his clothing to perform this feat. And really, Jensen had never seen Jared all the way naked before. He’d always kept some portion of clothing on while outdoors.

Now that Jensen had opportunity to observe all of Jared’s body naked at once, he could see that Jared’s upper half was just like a merman’s only it was sculpted and perfect. More perfect then Jensen’s own, and he had spent a good deal of time swimming to develop the muscles he had.

The lower half though…

Somehow Jensen had never thought about the way that Jared’s manhood worked. Sure Jared had made comments about the way that Jensen’s came to attention, but he hadn’t stopped to think about what differences there might be besides the color. He had always been distracted by more prurient interests when considering Jared’s cock.

That Jared’s penis and testicles just hung outside his body at all times was a little shocking. They swayed gently as he crawled over the edge of the tub, and Jensen was mortified to be caught looking.

Jared didn’t say anything, just smirked and leaned in for a kiss.

Soon they were writhing against each other trying to get better friction, completely ignoring the chipper voice on the television telling them that a ‘chop-o-matic’ would save them oodles of time in the kitchen.

Then Jared tried to brace a foot against the side of the tub and slipped, causing him to crash down against Jensen, spilling water over the sides of the tub.

“Okay, this isn’t going to work.” Jared grumbled as he hefted his body up and clambered over the side of the tub again. His cock was half hard and standing out just a little bit from his body. It was odd seeing how it increased in length and girth when he became aroused, but Jensen figured that it wasn’t that different from his own.

After all, arousal and its accompanying growth was what caused Jensen’s cock to expose itself in the first place.

“Okay, I’m going to need you to get up on the edge of the tub.” Jared said.

“Why?”

“Because I’m not sure my back can take bending over far enough to pull you out, and I really want to have sex with you, so we need to get to a bed.”

Oh, well, that made sense. Not that Jensen had ever had sex outside of the fast swim of a spawning dive or the outdoor interludes that he’d had with Jared to know that sex on a bed made sense, but he’d heard lots of beach going humans talk about getting back to the hotel to pound each other through the mattress. Obviously mattresses were very good for human copulation.

Obediently, Jensen arm pressed himself out of the water and perched on the edge of the tub as requested. He held out his arms to Jared who smiled at him as he slid his arms around Jensen and began to carry him down the hallways of his home again. The dogs were instantly on his heels, and Jared yelled at them to stay back.

They didn’t listen, so when Jared dropped Jensen down on the sinfully soft rectangle that he assumed was a mattress, Jared had to turn around right away and chase the dogs out before closing the door on them.

They stared awkwardly at each other for a moment before Jensen worked up the courage to say, “So, sex now?”

Jared was on top of him in an instant, long legs straddling Jensen’s tail, grinding their cocks together while they plundered each other’s mouths. Jensen’s tail thumped eagerly against the bed as they writhed together, his body straining in the dry air as if it was trying to spawn with the human astride it.

They came quickly, groaning and panting together.

Jared whined and muttered something about being too quick on the draw, and Jensen shushed him with tiny kisses of his own and a promise of a repeat performance as soon as he got his breath back.

It turned out that they had two repeat performances before they finally fell into an exhausted sleep for the night.

Sleeping next to Jared was nice. His body was warm, and even though there wasn’t the constant pressure of water around him, Jensen felt secure in his human’s arms.

That probably explained why he didn’t wake up the instant that Jared picked him up again and instead was awoken to the feel of being dropped into very tepid water.

Sputtering into consciousness was not his favorite thing to do.

“Jared, what the…”

“Oh God, Oh GOD. You’re okay. Fuck, you’re breathing, and you’re talking, and you’re okay, and I didn’t kill you.” Jared babbled as his giant hands pawed at Jensen’s face.

“Uh, yeah, obviously. As I was saying, what the hell is wrong with you?”

“I woke up, and you were still in my bed! Dude, I forgot to put you back into water, and I know what happens to like, beached whales and dolphins.”

“Yes, thanks for assuming that I was going to collapse under my own body weight like a blubbery whale.” Jensen groused as he shifted around in the water, trying to adjust to its boring room temperature after the warmth of Jared’s body.

“You weren’t making any noise! I thought…”

“Yeah, funny thing - making noise in the water attracts predators, so you don’t want to do that when you’re sleeping.”

“Well, I was worried, so I’m not going to apologize.”

“Well, you should, so you’re going to bring me some of those long crispy things with the fluffy tops and the string.”

Jared looked confused for a moment before he seemed to get it. “Celery? You want celery for breakfast?”

“Yes, celery. Lots of it.” Jensen declared imperiously.

Jared just shook his head and went to get the food.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It turned out that Jared liked having Jensen up in the house a lot. It was only at Jensen’s insistence that he needed to swim for exercise that convinced Jared to take him back out to the cove instead of just keeping Jensen inside whenever Jared wasn’t fishing.

The closeness was great, but the more they were together, the more that Jensen realized that they couldn’t stay that way.

It wasn’t something that just occurred to him one day, although that might have been easier to handle.

No, Jensen had always known that being near Jared would end in heartbreak, but he’d let himself have a fantasy about it. It was nice to be loved and wanted and touched by another person who wanted to be your lover. Family was one thing, but lovers were different.

The fact that Jensen had been living in a bubble of denial became obvious when Jared announced that he was going home for Thanksgiving.

The trip in and of itself wasn’t disturbing. They weren’t joined at the hip. It was Jared’s offhanded comments about his family and being excited to see all his nieces and nephews and his sister-in-law and his sister’s fiancée.

Jensen would never be introduced to Jared’s family. He couldn’t be. What could they possibly do? Put him in a wheelchair and cover his tail with a blanket?

He didn’t say anything to Jared at the time. The human was so happy about getting to go home that Jensen had no desire to dampen his cheer. Truth be told, if it wasn’t for the fate awaiting him at his own home, Jensen would feel much the same way about getting to see his parents and siblings.

When Jared got back from his family visit, he told amusing stories that lifted Jensen’s heart for a while until Jared had enough beer to start talking about his family’s less delicate questions about when he was going to find a nice young man to settle down with. He talked about how his brother volunteered to set him up with a gay accountant who loved the water and would probably be happy to get into the business with Jared.

Jared laughed it off with a genuine smile and a kiss to Jensen’s cheek. “Shoulda heard me, Babe. Turning down that nice offer. Couldn’t exactly tell my bro that I’ve got more tail than I can handle at home already.”

It hurt not because of any jealousy that Jensen had, but because he was keeping Jared from that. He knew it was Jared’s choice, but it was Jensen’s presence that was allowing it to happen.

Christmas was worse.

Jared was staying at his parent’s place through New Year’s, and he felt horrible about it.

Jensen couldn’t stay alone in the house for that long of a period. His body wasn’t made for slithering and dragging along carpeted floors. He couldn’t get far enough upright to turn on faucets for water let alone reach the doorknob to let the dogs in and out, so Harley and Sadie had to be kenneled, and Jensen had to be put out to sea.

Truthfully, Jensen didn’t mind. The cove was deep enough for a boat, but it wasn’t exactly deep enough for the warmer water currents that remained when winter caused ice to cover the surface of the water. Jared’s prolonged absence allowed him to go swimming out into deeper waters because he didn’t have to return each night. It would feel good to stretch his fins for a change as the ice had halted Jared’s fishing expeditions for the season, and he hadn’t gotten much swimming done after that happened.

Jared had been very persuasive in his belief that certain indoor activities would provide exercise in a much more pleasant way.

When the day came for Jared to leave, he left Jensen in the house while he walked out to widen the hole that he’d made in the ice. Through the window, Jensen could see that Jared took as long as possible removing the buildup that had occurred from the last time that he’d cleared the hole out.

Eventually, the human slowly trekked back into the cottage, insisted in wrapping Jensen in a big blanket to ward off the chill and carried him outside. Jared kissed him goodbye for a long while before putting Jensen down so he could slide across the ice and drop into the sea.

Being away from Jared and Jared’s home was horrible. On the one hand, Jensen had grown used to being warm in the cabin. He’d become accustomed to being held by strong human arms and legs. He’d grown to like the feeling of little dog tongues licking at his fin to wake him up in the morning.

He’d gotten used to being talked to, and being so alone was a shock to his system.

The loneliness caused Jensen to go back to the cove earlier than planned. He wanted to be nearby as soon as Jared came home.

He’d been gone long enough for the hole to have iced over. The small gaps where the ice didn’t completely seal weren’t big enough for Jensen to break through on his own, and the ice was too thick for him to pound through with either his bare fists or the rocks he could scrounge.

It was boring to be trapped under the opaque covering of ice and the snow that covered it. The weak winter sun didn’t provide much light when filtered through, and Jensen couldn’t even observe the cottage or the winter birds that still remained.

He didn’t leave though. He stayed curled up at the bottom of the cove, waiting for Jared, hoping for an earlier return than planned.

Jared came home late.

The sun had long since gone down when Jensen heard the pounding on the cap of ice over his head. Jared’s swearing echoed oddly through the water, but the desperate tinge to it was obvious.

Harley and Sadie were barking like mad and a stress crack snapped through the ice with an audible bang.

Finally, the hole opened and Jensen swam over to it, keeping his distance as Jared chiseled at the sides, enlarging it from the eight inch hole that Jared’s ice auger made to something that Jensen’s shoulders could fit through.

Eventually, the hole got big enough, and Jared started calling for Jensen, his voice rough and raspy.

Jensen popped through almost immediately.

He couldn’t see Jared all that well thanks to the darkness of the night surrounding them, but what he could make out looked cold and soaked and completely unhappy.

“Hey,” Jensen greeted warily.

“Jensen, God, I am so, so sorry. My flight got delayed, and I tried everything I could to get back on time, but they were booked. And my kennel lady was going on vacation, so I had to go there to pick up the kids first, and then I couldn’t get the truck started. I was so, so worried about you. Have you been down there long? Are you okay? Do mermen get hypothermic?”

“I hear that human men do, so why don’t you get us inside, huh?” Jensen suggested softly.

Jared nodded and helped pull Jensen up onto the ice. He made it exactly three steps before he slipped and fell, crashing against the ice and sending Jensen sliding.

The human’s shadowed face looked like he wanted to cry, so Jensen forced a smile on his face and pretended that his whole tail didn’t feel bruised.

“Look, you’re exhausted. Why don’t you just go back to the cottage, and I’ll…”

“Don’t you dare say that you’ll spend another night in there.” Jared interrupted hotly. “I couldn’t stand it if you did. I missed you, so much, and I can’t sleep another night without you next to me.”

It was obvious that Jared wasn’t in any condition to be carrying Jensen. It was equally obvious that Jared overly tired and prone to making irrational decisions like freezing to death in the great outdoors because he refused to give up.

That left exactly one option.

For the record, Jensen did not enjoy dragging himself across frozen water. His skin tried to stick to the ice, and the snowy banks of the small hill that the cottage rested on top of were far worse. His weight caused him to sink down into it, and pulling himself through it was an exercise of willpower.

After trying to convince Jensen to allow him to try again, Jared seemed to give up and bemoan the fact that he didn’t have a sled that he could use to haul Jensen inside with.

Eventually, Jensen snapped at Jared telling him to get inside before he caught his death, but the stubborn human didn’t listen. He just slowly walked alongside as Jensen struggled, refusing to leave him alone again.

 

They headed straight for the hot tub as soon as they got inside. It was full of ground water as Jared hadn’t had time to haul in sea water, and he had drained it before he left to keep it from growing bacteria, but it was warm all the same. Jensen bemoaned the fact that they couldn’t just turn the heat jets on, but Jared seemed to think that it wouldn’t be good for their condition, and he insisted they thaw out slowly.

Jensen capitulated to him. He had other things to worry about, like how he was going to break not only his own heart, but Jared’s as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jared refused to go home for Easter. He claimed that it was because of a late break in the winter ice and that he needed to get more fishing in if he wanted to make up for the profit differential.

His family didn’t believe him. He received no less than six phone calls from different relatives about it. Apparently he was becoming a recluse, and it was unhealthy for him.

It came as a shock that Jared had led a rather diverse dating life before Jensen came along. He’d been on a quest to find Mr. Right, and he’d come pretty damn close several times. His family was worried that he had lost hope. That he had quit and given up.

The look in Jared’s eyes was unbearably sad when he talked to Jensen about it even though his generous mouth was twisted into a smile.

Jared wanted a boyfriend, maybe even a husband someday, that he could bring home to his parents. He wanted a man that would stand beside him with pride, not flop around like his latest catch of the day.

Jensen could never be that. He was a creature that at best would have to be hidden away should Jared’s family ever come to visit. He wasn’t a man. He was an it, and he was holding Jared back.

As summer approached, Jensen felt the days slipping by him. He wanted nothing more than to grab on to the time and hold fast. He didn’t want to leave Jared, but he had to do it, and it wasn’t a decision he could put off for very long.

If he couldn’t be with Jared, the only other option was to go home. He was still a merman, and being solitary would still kill him. It would probably kill him faster now that he’d fallen in love. He couldn’t think of anything more painful than being parted from his human, but it wasn’t fair of him to hold on like he was.

If he went home, he might be able to live a few more years and have time to remember and replay his moments with Jared in his mind. He doubted that he’d be able to successfully spawn, but he could guarantee that he wouldn’t be eyeing the other mermen any longer, and that would hopefully be sufficient for the others.

It wasn’t fair, but he stubbornly clung to all the time that he could. He sang sad songs that Jared complained about until he finally caved and put English words to the melodies so that Jared could understand them.

Then, when the giant of a man declared them to be too depressing, Jensen sang him happy songs instead, putting all of his love for Jared into them in the hopes of making their last days together their best ever.

All too soon, the very last day that Jensen could stay was upon him. Jared was sitting at the end of his dock watching the sun set while Jensen floated in the water beneath him.

“So I was thinking that we could try starting the Indiana Jones movies tonight, because I just do not think you understand the hotness of Harrison Ford if you like Star Trek better than Star Wars.” Jared said as he swung his feet back and forth.

Normally Jensen would come back with a witty rejoinder about how Trek people were far more cerebral, but his words caught in his throat. He couldn’t put off leaving any longer.

“Jensen?” Jared asked, concern coloring his tone.

“I can’t come inside tonight.” Jensen whispered.

“Of course you can, don’t be silly.”

“No, Jared, I can’t go inside because I won’t be here. I… I have to go home.”

“Bullshit!” Jared exploded, dropping off the dock, fully clothed, into the water. His hands grabbed hold of Jensen’s shoulders. “You don’t have to go anywhere near those bigoted assholes. You belong here, with me. They’re just, just… your past now.”

Jensen looked away, his eyes filling with tears. He had wanted to make this as easy as possible on Jared. Make himself the jerk who just up and left without warning. He wanted to be someone that Jared could hate.

“I ‘belong’ here? Jared, I’m a fucking fish. I don’t belong with you.”

“You are not a fish. Jensen, baby, where is this coming from?”

“It’s coming from the fact that I’m not right for you, and you aren’t right for me. Look around yourself, Jared. What are you going to say to that family that loves you, huh? Are you going to lie to them for the rest of your life? Are you going to let them think that you’re all alone in the world? Are you going to tell them that you’re fulfilling your sexual needs with a man who isn’t even human? Are you going to hurt them like that?”

“I already told them I’m gay. I think I’ve already done those steps once before.” Jared replied in an infuriatingly calm voice.

“Fuck you! It isn’t the same, and you know it! You can’t even have proper sex with me because of the way my body is. How many times have we tried, huh? I can’t get in a good enough position to be fucked, and I can’t fuck you because my tail muscles aren’t in the right positions. Are you going to be happy with hand jobs and blow jobs and a little frottage for the rest of your life? “

“Don’t bring our sex life into this.” Jared hissed. “I love you more than that, and don’t you dare try to tell me that you don’t love me just as damn much.”

“I do love you, Jared. That’s why I have to go. Don’t you see?”

“No, I don’t see. Forgive me if I don’t understand how you running home to fuck some other person, some woman is for my own good. I don’t want you touching anybody else like that.”

“And you think I want to imagine you with another man? Falling in love with him and giving him your name and your devotion? It kills me to think of it, but I want you to have that. I want you to have the life you deserve, and I don’t want to die. I’m sorry, Jared, but there’s only one scenario where that’s going to happen.”

“No,” Jared shook his head vehemently. “No!”

Jensen shook his head and whispered, “Goodbye,” not even stealing one final kiss. Instead he slipped under the surface of the water, darted around Jared’s grabbing hands and swam away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It took Jensen many days to swim home. Part of him hoped that he would get lost along the way, but his internal compass worked as well as ever.

His mother bawled when she saw him, but that was okay because it allowed him to cry as well. His father’s strong arms refused to let him go, and his siblings were nearly as bad. He got to see his newly born nephew, and the friends that hadn’t renounced him came by with the things that they had managed to salvage from his place before the council had demolished it and declared it free for looting.

Their company was a balm of sorts. After having only Jared for companionship for so long, it was nice to have others to talk with. But their presence didn’t soothe Jensen’s heart, and it didn’t keep him from longing for a warm bed and the strange fruits and vegetables that Jared would buy just for him.

The worst part was that he couldn’t eve confide in his loved ones about Jared. If the council thought him a criminal against his race for lusting after his own sex, he had no idea what they would do to him if he were to admit to craving a human’s touch.

The tribunal for his reinstatement was as fast as his banishment had been. He had the strength of character to survive on his own and return to them in a sound state of mind. He was to be first in the season’s new spawning in order to ‘celebrate’ his return and reform.

The thought made him ill.

The woman that his parents had chosen for him was a friend of his. Unlike the other girls, she was older, having been spawned before and never caught with child, she had refused the hand of marriage of all her other suitors.

It was the female’s choice to reject a potential husband were he to spawn her and she not become with child. Jensen figured that with her barrenness established, she might be willing to lie for him and claim that he came to completion if not for the fact that their spawning would be observed by the council.

He felt horrible for her. Nobody deserved to have such an intimate moment watched by others. It was only his ‘wrongness’ that caused such a breach of privacy to be mandated let alone allowed.

The council tested him. He was aware of the number of mermen parading by him, flicking their pretty blue and green and purple tails. He could see their shapely torsos and their handsome faces, but he didn’t give any of the more than a passing glance.

How could he? They weren’t Jared.

“You’re doing good.” His brother commented as he watched two very muscular mermen from out of the area sway by.

Jensen snorted.

“I mean it, Jensen. I looked, and I’ve got little ones at home and a wife who feeds me.”

“She picks raw kelp for you. It isn’t as if she even cooks.” Jensen said meanly.

“Cooks? Jensen you spent far too much time near human beaches if you’re talking about cooked food. We can’t exactly start fires in the water, and combining the right seaweeds together is an art form.”

“I suppose I did.” Jensen agreed quietly.

“Did what?”

“Spent too much time near human beaches.”

“You were lonely. It happens. Desperation would cause any merman to seek out the pseudo company of listening to leg walkers and their conversations.”

He should have let it go. He shouldn’t have said anything, but, “It wasn’t like that.”

That, of course, garnered him his brother’s full attention. “What wasn’t like what?”

Jensen turned away and picked at his fingernails.

“Jensen.” His brother’s voice was commanding.

“I… his name was, is Jared. He… he was nice to me.”

“Triton! You exposed yourself to a human?”

“He caught me in his nets. It wasn’t exactly a choice.”

“And this fisherman kept you as some sort of pet?”

“No! No, he… Jared wouldn’t ever do something like that. He’s kind and gentle and funny, and he just wouldn’t, okay?”

His brother was silent for a while before saying, “You’re in love with him.”

Jensen’s face burned in shame at the words, and his stomach twisted for being ashamed of loving Jared. It was a horrible, horrible feeling. He nodded his head in admission and looked away, not wanting to see his brother’s face.

“You know, when Mom and Dad brought you home from your birthing run, you were the tiniest little calf in the group? All my friends were making fun of me for having such a funny looking brother. All eyeballs and bright, red tail. I got in so many little kid fights about it, storming out of play dates and declaring that I’d never speak to them again. Some of them I still haven’t spoken to.”

Jensen glanced over at his brother with questioning eyes.

“The point is that you’re my little brother, and I want you to be happy even if you’re acting like one of those silly love struck mermaids who pine themselves to death over some human sailor they’ve only seen once.”

“I can’t be happy. I can’t make him happy either. If I could have, I would’ve stayed.”

“You love him that much? That you would’ve left your family believing you dead?”

It hurt to hear it put that way, but it was the truth.

“I would’ve done anything to be with him if it would have worked out.” Jensen told him.

Jensen’s brother didn’t say anything else. He just patted him once on the shoulder and swam away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Jensen’s spawning day grew closer, the knots in his belly drew tighter and grew in number. He had no doubt at all that he was not going to be able to perform in the slightest. He didn’t want to be intimate with anybody but Jared. He did not believe that he could even get an erection without fantasizing that he was with Jared, and he refused to sully the memory of his lover by pretending to be with him while he mated with a female.

He had no idea what the council would do when they found out his condition. He had passed all their other tests with ease, so there was a chance that they would just accept him as a null entity. Sexless was a far cry from homosexual. They couldn’t judge him for reproductive problems.

On the other hand, they could easily call him a liar and a fraud and banish him again this time forever.

Another banishment would make quick work of him. He couldn’t go back to Jared. Even if the fisherman would take him back after the way that Jensen had parted from him, the situation hadn’t changed.

It might be the quick and easy way out, but Jensen hadn’t lost the will to live. He’d rather have a few more years to cherish Jared’s memory before he passed on.

“Your brother tells me that you’ve fallen in love with a human boy.” Jensen’s grandfather said without preamble.

“My brother needs to learn to not betray confidences.” Jensen muttered. “I do not need a lecture, Grandfather.”

“Youth! So impetuous and judgmental of your elders. What happened to that sweet boy that used to sing his grandpapa songs when he visited?”

“Apparently he was exiled for thinking other boys sweet.” Jensen said bitterly.

“Hmmm, he is quite charming this ‘Jared’ of yours?”

“Do not try to talk me out of it, and do not speak ill of him in my presence. If you have issue with me, take it to the council. Others certainly have before you.”

“Talk you out of something? With your mother’s stubbornness and your father’s dull wit mixing in your blood? I’d be better off setting that poor human of yours straight. He likely has no idea what an ass you can be.”

Jensen felt a headache coming on and rubbed at his temples. “Is there something that you wanted? Because I warn you that I am poor company at the moment.”

“There is indeed something I’d like to tell you if you’d be so kind as to be quiet long enough to listen to an old man ramble.”

“Fine.” Jensen snapped, his irritation at the whole situation welling up.

His grandfather looked at him with sympathy in his eyes instead of insult, and Jensen felt all the worse for it.

“I know that I told you of the woman who was to be my wife, and I know that you have heard of the rescue party that went to retrieve her body.”

Jensen nodded in response.

“What we don’t tell the young ones is that there was a member of the rescue party who did not return.”

Jensen raised an eyebrow in question, but kept silent.

“She fell in love with one of the humans on the ship. He was cleaning the deck, and he spotted our people moving in the night. But the lad didn’t open his mouth, didn’t utter a sound. He just stood there and watched while the human’s trophy was taken down and taken out to sea where she belonged.”

“Muriel fell in love with him at first sight, and his silence only cemented her infatuation with him. Waving off the others in the group, she followed under the boat until it arrived at its port.”

Jensen’s grandfather paused and looked at him. “Stop me if any of this seems too familiar.”

Jensen glowered and motioned with his hands for his grandfather to continue. “So she knew where her human was, but there was no way for her to be with him. She could hide amongst the rocks and sing him songs, but she would be hoisted up on a mast as quickly as any other mermaid should she reveal herself. She mourned because of her lost love, and sought any means to be with him. Eventually she found a practitioner of herbal medicines who claimed to have the potion of Aphrodite said to give fortune to those who are truly in love.”

“She paid the price and drank the potion, and do you know what happened?”

“Her sailor was in love with another woman, so she turned into sea foam?” Jensen suggested drily.

“No! Sakes boy, where do you come up with such nonsense? She grew legs. Her tail split right in two with a horrible ripping pain, and she grew legs. Sea foam. What utter stupidity. Should’ve never let your mother spawn with that octopus of a father of yours, but she swore she loved him.”

“Grandfather, I appreciate the story, but I doubt that something that fantastic would be kept quiet.”

“Oh? You think that the council who sent you away for your ‘crime’ would allow such things to become public knowledge? I’m offering you your way out boy. I don’t want your mother to cry, but better she lose you to your dreams than your memories.”

Jensen fought back the surge of hope that tried to crawl its way out of his chest and into his throat. “What if it doesn’t work? What if…”

“Don’t ask those sorts of questions, you’ll only succeed in upsetting yourself. The only ‘what’ that you need to ask yourself is what it is that you want to do. Forgive me if I don’t believe that you want to stay here.”

Jensen watched his grandfather swim slowly away. He pretended to have a hard time thinking about it but the truth was that as soon as he heard that there might be hope, he had decided to go. The only hard part about it was deciding how he would say goodbye to his family.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Sea Witch, as Jensen had taken to calling her in his head, wasn’t difficult to find. She resided in the same small village that his grandfather had told him about. She was dead, but her gravestone was clearly marked, so locating her wasn’t an issue.

Thankfully a couple of merfolk in the area remembered that her daughter was rumored to have taken up her trade, so he swam through several more villages to track down where the Sea Witch’s offspring had put her shop.

When Jensen finally located her, he was surprised at the size of her business. She had a strong trade in exotic foods and all manner of remedies. More famous than infamous, she had a large and rather colorful shop just outside where her own school of merfolk resided.

“Hello?” Jensen asked as he slipped inside the archway made out of pieces of coral that were jammed together.

“Ah, a traveler! My favorite kind of customer. Tell me, what can Hazel do for you today?” Her voice was chipper and happy and not at all the sort of voice that Jensen would suggest belonged to a person powerful enough to give him legs.

“This is going to sound stupid.”

“Darling, there isn’t anything I haven’t heard.”

“My grandfather, he said that you, or actually your mother, had remedies, potions for everything.” Jensen began.

“Not everything, but I do try to help. What’s wrong with him? His tail bones losing flexibility in his old age? I’ve got something to help take down some of the joint pain, but I don’t have a cure.”

“No, it, uh, isn’t for my grandfather. It’s, well, it’s for me. I’m told that you can… give me legs?”

She paused her movements and stared intently at Jensen for a moment. “You’ve got a bit of a wanderer’s heart in you? Want to see the human world?”

“Actually, no. I just want to see a particular human’s world, live in it more than see to be truthful.” Jensen admitted.

“Oh, dear. Well that’s so much more dangerous than a quick trip to visit Disney World.” She said distractedly, as if she was only talking to herself and not to him.

Not having been laughed at or ridiculed, Jensen grabbed onto his opportunity. “I’m willing to take the risk. I understand that not all humans are faithful, and their relationships fall apart. I just want the chance.”

Hazel didn’t bat an eye or even react to Jensen’s impassioned speech except to say, “You cannot have children with her. The babies will be sterile and likely malformed between legs and flippers.”

Jensen took a deep breath. He didn’t know what the penalty was for lying to a woman of her power, so he was going to have to correct her.

“I don’t think that will be a problem. My lover is, is another male.”

“Oh!” Her voice reached new heights of delighted squeakiness. “A banishment! How romantic! Well, why didn’t you say so? Come back tomorrow night, and we’ll take a little trip.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Come see me tomorrow when it’s night out.” Hazel repeated loudly and slowly as if Jensen was deaf or extremely dull-witted.

Equal parts confused and intimidated, Jensen nodded and left. He worried throughout the day about what she was going to ask him to do on this trip. It would most likely be something very dangerous or illegal. She was his only hope, and she knew it. He was so, so screwed.

When the time came, he swam back to her shop less determined and more resigned. He wasn’t looking forward to what was going to happen, but he had to do it if he ever wanted to be with Jared.

“Here, carry these,” were the orders barked at him the instant he came inside.

There were satchels and crates full of empty glass containers littered around the front of her shop.

“Carry them where?” He asked.

“Why, up top, of course. I have to move them up somehow, and you look to be strong and able bodied.”

Jensen shrugged and grabbed what he could. He followed the witch up to a shoreline and she sent him back again. Hour after hour he toted objects until his muscles were sore and ached form the effort, leaving things on the beach for Hazel to, presumably, drag onto higher ground.

Finally, the last satchel was lifted and the final box was hauled.

He followed Hazel onto the sandy beach, his tail making disturbing S shapes in the sand like some giant snake.

When he finally reached Hazel, she was standing in the sand on a pair of feet.

Jensen blinked at the sight, sure that the drying salt water and his exhaustion were combining to play tricks on his mind.

“Don’t blink at me like that, young one. You think that I have to power to walk, and I don’t use it on myself?”

“I guess I thought it was permanent.” Jensen mumbled.

“It is, well, I imagine it will be for you. Love struck guppies with their hearts set on pretty humans rarely want to change back. But you’re all still merfolk. No potion, pill or procedure in the world will make you truly human.”

“Will I only have legs if I’m dry?”

“Do I look dry to you? You need to not watch any movies about mermaids anymore. Those Hollywood types can’t get anything straight in their little noggins. What you have to do is drink this foul mixture at least once every six months. If you want to switch back, then you drink this one.” Hazel told him as she waggled two vials in front of his face.

“Don’t drink the second one if you’re still clothed though. It’s painful enough to have your tail split in two and grow human covering. You don’t want your legs to fuse back together into your tail when there is cloth between them. It would be painful.”

“What if I run out of potion?”

“You won’t. They’re simple ingredients that any human grocery store would have. Well, presuming that you don’t travel to some third world countries, so try to stay away from heavy charity work, okay? Charity begins at home – remember that.”

“You’re going to give me the recipe?” Jensen asked.

“Of course, dear. Why wouldn’t I? You think that I want to be charged with your eternal bliss? What if I get eaten by sharks? You think I want my last thought to be of you and how you’re going to find yourself flopping on your kitchen floor like improperly butchered fish dinner?”

“But, I’m not a witch. How can I make a potion?”

“A witch?” Hazel laughed heartily, her voice rolling out over the beach. “I’m no witch myself. My mother found this recipe carved into the stone wall of an old temple of Aphrodite. There’s no chanting or anything other than a very specific recipe to follow. Call it magic, call it medicine, call it playing God: I only know that it works, and in case it isn’t just the chemical experiments of a madly brilliant mermaid, I’m not going to withhold it from any merfolk that come looking for it.”

Hazel paused and cocked her head to the side. “That isn’t to say that I don’t want payment. I’ll need you to purchase certain supplies for me on occasion and provide some exchange services.”

“What kind of exchanges are we talking about here?” Jensen asked suspiciously.

“Why money of course! I get paid in things that are valuable to merfolk. Now, that makes me a rich woman down there, but I cannot exactly restock my inventory using shipwrecked coins and pretty sea shells, so I bring my saleable trinkets to you, and you turn them into money for me. Oh, and I’ll be leaving you with a list of items I’m always in need of. I ask that you buy them if they’re on sale for a good price. Keep the receipt; I’ll not be cheated on the price.”

“Wait, I’m – money laundering for you and I’m a, a drug mule?” Jensen asked.

“I know! Isn’t it exciting?” Hazel turned her grin on Jensen, then frowned when her eyes focused in on his expression. “Oh don’t look at me like that. All that I’m asking for is over the counter medication, and there isn’t exactly an exchange counter for our people’s currency.”

Jensen looked down at the wet list that she had handed him. There were several items that he recognized as things that Jared had kept in his first aid kit on the boat.

“Aspirin?”

“I call it ‘White Sands Pain Dust.’ Believe me; human pharmaceuticals have made a world of difference in my business. It’s worth the pain of repackaging all of their stuff to make it water proof. But hey, they have the electricity to power the machines that make it possible, and I have the potion that allows me to come up here and buy it from them. I’m a retailer, really. The only ‘remedy’ that I actually make is the one that gives us legs.”

“What happens if I don’t help you?”

“Why? Are you planning of ditching me, Jensen?” Hazel asked, her eyes narrowing shrewdly.

“No, I just…”

“Relax. I’ve heard the question before, and the answer is nothing. What am I going to do? Expose you as a merman and ruin my business? Either the humans hunt us down as oddities or they don’t hunt us down and instead start putting in underwater Walgreens. Either way, I’m out of income.”

“Why are you helping me then?” Jensen asked.

“Because every business woman needs to invest. Some of those investments never pan out, some do. You’re a risk, and I hope you’re a good one. Besides,” Hazel said with an evil grin on her lips, “it isn’t as if everything is going to be easy for you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hazel knew a guy that made fake backgrounds for people. Jensen didn’t ask how, and she didn’t volunteer the information. Honestly he was still reeling from the excruciating pain of having the lower half of his body split in two while his skin and bones reformed.

While Jensen Ackles came into existence, Hazel dragged Jensen the merman around to all sorts of shopping centers and sent him stumbling through them on his wobbling new legs to buy items for her in large quantities that weren’t quite large enough to raise the suspicions of thoroughly bored store clerks.

Jensen’s legs, even ignoring their unsteady newborn state, were a real treat. They were as freckled as his torso with hair everywhere like Jared’s legs tended to be. But they were also slightly bowed, and he developed a swagger when he walked to compensate for it. Swaggering seemed to attract attention to his ass from human females, and it was almost like being sixteen again and being declared that sexiest merman in the area because of his pretty tail.

Clothes were interesting. They weren’t quite as bad as he had feared, but his socks kept getting wedged between his newly formed toes, and his underwear liked to do the same thing to his new butt crack. Still, he preferred the socks and a nice pair of boots to the strange flip-flops that Hazel preferred. Honestly, he couldn’t understand how she could constantly have the leather thong between her toes let alone have the shoe not move with her foot.

The fact that his ‘junk’ was no longer hidden away by his body was distracting, especially when it rubbed against the inside of his clothing, reminding him that it was there, that he was just like Jared now.

He didn’t have much left after he paid the man who made his fake background. Hazel had given him the clothes he was wearing and had shown him where to pawn his more valuable things to get human cash, but beyond that he was on his own. She wasn’t in ‘the business’ for charity or ‘fairy godmothering.’

Jensen didn’t have two cents to rub together, the meager possessions he still had were worth more in sentimentality than the paltry sums of human money they would bring. His lack of funds meant that he was going to have to walk to Jared’s place. Geographically, he wasn’t even sure where that was. It wasn’t as if he’d ever had a conversation with Jared about it. There had been no need. Jensen had been living under the man’s dock, and Jared’s phone number had been something that Jensen was never going to need to either dial or give out.

In short, he was in possession of a pair of human legs and not much else.

But he was still a merman even with his legs, and merfolk had internal compasses. Jensen might not know the town that Jared lived in, or the phone number or address to contact him at, but he knew the right directions, and that was going to have to be enough.

He traveled along the coastline, diving into pools of water and dragging out what edible things he could find. For the first few days, he was able to hitchhike with some nicer humans. He was still comely in his human form, and apparently that counted for a lot in human society.

Then his beard began to grow out, and his clothes started to get ragged. He cleaned himself as much as he could in the coastal waters, but the washings made his clothes stiff and scratchy, and his beard was harder to shave when it wasn’t constantly submerged in water to soften it.

He discovered the joy of blisters on his feet and the fun of sleeping on a damp forest floor.

As the days wore on, Jensen sang to himself a lot to keep himself busy and stop his brain from thinking. He grew tired of eating the suspect food he could drag out of the water that hugged the land so closely, and he yearned for social interaction beyond the suspicious glares or occasional names that he got called by passing motorists.

Once he stopped in a city to eat at one of those soup kitchens that Jared always donated to. His first experience eating the actual soup they were serving was abysmal. The spoon was a foreign concept to him as one could hardly eat anything liquid in the sea, so he managed to spill a good deal of it on himself. But there were people there who were talking to themselves and others who were talking to the roaches that were apparently crawling all over them, so he didn’t figure that anybody noticed bad table technique.

The food wasn’t good, but Jensen’s stomach was filled with the dried out bread and the small serving of vegetables that they gave him. He traded the meat he’d been given for another patron’s serving of vegetables, and as the toothless man seemed to think it an excellent trade, he told Jensen the location of the local shelter after extracting a promise from him that he was, indeed, only passing through.

The mattress in the shelter was thin and hard, but it was clean and dry. There were a few who came by to bully at Jensen and try to get something out of his knapsack, but they backed off when they saw his size and still fit frame.

He cleaned up in the city subway bathroom like the homeless man had told him to do, and received a five dollar bill for the song that he sang to himself while washing. He also got a reminder that he should be singing in the actual halls if he wanted money otherwise people might think he was selling something else.

Jensen used the money to buy plastic baggies to wrap his fake birth certificate and other identification papers in. He had no idea how long it was going to take him to reach Jared by walking on foot, but if the potion wore off before his human legs could walk him there, he didn’t want to ruin the documents by getting them wet when he had to go back to swimming.

Truth be told, he’d prefer to swim right away if he could, but Hazel hadn’t given him a bottle of the other potion, and he hadn’t the money to buy the supplies to make it himself.

One day, Jensen was almost hit in the head by an acoustic guitar flying off the roof of a passing car. He thought, in a rather optimistic way, that he had finally caught a break, but the pawn shop told him it was too damaged to get much money. They didn’t offer near enough for the instrument to pay for the supplies that Jensen needed to become a merman again. They didn’t offer much of anything. He wasn’t sure if that was because he looked so horrible or because the guitar really wasn’t worth much in its damaged state.

It was a musical instrument though, so Jensen couldn’t find it in his heart to toss it in the nearest dumpster. He’d been thrown away once before too, and music had been his life before he was exiled and met Jared.

Even though there were no stringed instruments under water, he kept it for the sake of what it was, forcing himself to learn it on nights when it became too dark to travel safely and days when it stormed so hard that for the first time he experienced being afraid of the water.

The day that he recognized a bit of shoreline as belonging to Jared’s area was one of the happiest days of his life. If he hadn’t been so exhausted, he’d have run into town. As it was, he stumbled along at as fast a clip as he could manage.

Night was falling by the time that he started moving through the outskirts, but instead of resting in the wilderness again, he pushed forward into the town proper. He doubted that he could sleep knowing that he was so close to Jared’s home and final destination.

Jensen’s heart was pounding a merry tune as he crept along the darkened streets of Jared’s town. He had no desire for the people to see the picture he currently made and associate that image of vagrancy with Jared. If possible, he would have avoided the streets of the town altogether, but the shore was too steep and rocky to walk along, and detouring around would put on extra time that he didn’t care to lose.

So, through the town it was.

Passing by a restaurant with large, glass windows, Jensen’s ears caught the sound of Jared’s laughter. Lips twitching into a smile all on their own, Jensen turned his head to try to catch a glimpse of his beloved only to have his heart shatter.

Jared’s smile was as wide as ever. His tan skin stood out perfectly against the crisp, white lines of his shirt. The shirt sleeves were rolled up displaying his muscular forearms. One of his hands was wrapped around a beer bottle, but the other hand was wrapped up in another man’s.

Unwillingly, Jensen forced his eyes to follow the line of the arm connected to the hand clasped around Jared’s back to the body that owned it. The man was smaller than Jared, blonde and healthy looking. His mouth was moving quickly, his eyes crinkling in mirth.

Unable to bear the sight, Jensen turned away and stumbled blindly through the alleys of the town. He had no right to be hurt. None at all. Jared had done exactly as Jensen had told him to do. Jared had the right to find a real human to be his companion. Jared deserved that, and Jensen didn’t deserve to feel hurt about it.

After what he had done to Jared, Jensen couldn’t expect his fisherman to hold out hope that he would return. Jensen hadn’t even known it was a possibility. Why should Jared have been more optimistic?

Sliding down next to a dumpster, Jensen rested his head on his knees and cried.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not knowing what else to do, Jensen dragged himself to the soup kitchen that Jared had talked about donating to. They were closed for the night, but there was a grocery store nearby that Jensen was able to steal some wilted and not so fresh vegetables from. He’d never resorted to dumpster diving before because he didn’t consider himself homeless.

He was simply a man on a journey, going home the long way.

Now he truly had nothing. It was far past spawning season, and there would be no second reprieve from the council. Jared would no doubt be kind to him, but it was clear that he was no longer Jensen’s to have. That opportunity had slipped through Jensen’s hand like so much sea water.

His stomach turned both with disappointment and a questionable dinner. His legs began to cramp from the extra walking that he’d forced them to do. At the time, he’d been imagining Jared’s hot tub and its soothing jets. Now all he had was a cold, brick wall.

Morosely he plucked at the strings on his guitar, their discordant and dull tones that resulted from the extra cracks and dents in the case matched his mood that was brought on by his cracked heart.

Numbly he sang, voice clashing with his guitar as it stayed stubbornly on pitch despite the accompaniment.

That was, naturally, when the poor overnight stock boy decided to sneak out for an extra cigarette break. Stock boy freaked and called the police on his cell phone.

Jensen ran, but with cramping legs he didn’t make it very far. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the police that he ran into.

Because Jensen’s life was destined to pummel him into nothingness, he ran straight into Jared’s oh-so-handsome, pretty boy date.

“Dude, get off me.” The man squawked.

Jensen grunted and rolled off, his battered guitar clunking against the side of the man’s car as he moved.

“My car! Dude what the HELL is wrong with you?”

Jensen bit back his instinctive response of, “You stole the love of my life you bastard!” Instead he just grunted again and kept his eyes on the ground as he got to his feet, acting like he’d seen other homeless people do when they got confronted.

“Seriously! I think you nicked the finish!” Pretty boy continued complaining, “You’d better pay for that!”

Jensen couldn’t help but let loose a bark of laughter at that, because he more than already paid. “With what, genius? My good looks and winning personality?”

“Your insurance, dumbass.” Pretty boy replied snidely.

“My… Is there some part of you that doesn’t function right? Are you blind? Because I’m pretty sure I’m doing a really good impersonation of a homeless man right now. Oh, wait! It isn’t an impersonation because I’m really fucking homeless. Triton, if I’d known what horrible taste in men that…”

“Chad?” Jared’s voice interrupted them, the sound of his footsteps clomping on the pavement heralding his imminent arrival.

Fuck.

“Yeah, okay. I’m just going to go now. You two enjoy your, your whatever together. Have it on my good wishes, Sporty.” Jensen snarled to ‘Chad’ as he turned to stalk away before Jared could see him.

“What about my car?” Chad complained behind him, but Jensen didn’t shorten his already hobbled walk.

“What was taking you so long?” Jared’s voice echoed behind Jensen’s retreating back. “You said you were just going to go grab your car. I’ve been waiting on the sidewalk so long I thought I was going to get arrested for soliciting.”

“That guy down there scratched the finish.” Chad told Jared.

“What guy? Dude! You’re trying to get money out of some homeless guy that’s down on his luck?”

Jensen hunched his shoulders and tried not to take the name personally. He was, after all, a bum, and he wasn’t about to turn around and inform Jared differently. He heard Chad start in on the whole story of how Jensen had dinged up his beloved car, and heard Jared’s protestations that they should go after ‘the poor guy’ and try to assist him.

Those words were enough to spur Jensen on to move again despite the pain. There was no way he was going to face Jared. Not now.

He dodged and ducked in and out of alleys until he made his way out of the town. And then he was stuck because as much as being in town sucked, it was better than being in the wilderness.

Being back in the wild just drove home the point that Jensen had nowhere to go. His whole purpose had been to get to Jared’s house, but that goal had been erased when he saw Jared and his new love.

Then again, Jared had been getting into the other man’s car, and Jensen hadn’t heard any mention of them going home. Even if they were going someplace to get intimate, Jensen didn’t see this Chad guy as the sort to want to get it on near Jared’s dogs.

The bastard probably hated them and fed them chocolate when Jared wasn’t looking in hopes of killing them and having a chance at consoling the bereaved fisherman.

Or not.

Jensen had been told on occasion that he had too active of an imagination.

The point was that Jared most likely wasn’t going straight home, and Jensen could still technically accomplish his goal even if the accompanying hopes had been shot, killed and buried.

And if he was maybe going to stand outside and stare at the cottage and the cove and force himself to remember good things, well that wasn’t going to hurt anybody. He had a right to retain his memory of Jared as something that was damn near perfection. He had a right to erase the sight of Jared letting another man hold his hand and the sound of Jared’s laughter being given to such a loathsome person.

The dogs started barking like crazy when Jensen got too close to the cottage. It was their happy, excited bark that they always used when Jared came home, and it warmed Jensen’s heart to hear it for his own arrival. It also tugged on said heart because he knew that he couldn’t go in to see them. He’d be leaving as soon as he took his trip down memory lane.

The dock was still in good enough condition, but needed a little fixing up again. Jensen sighed and tried not to think about it too hard. A couple of years and any tangible reminder of Jensen’s existence in Jared’s life would be gone.

He didn’t walk out to the point where they’d first officially made love nor did he walk to the end of the dock to stare at the place where he’d broken them apart. He didn’t have it in him to relive either extreme.

But the longer he stood just looking, the more that his legs started to ache and complain of the extra abuse that he’d heaped on them earlier. Sitting down and massaging his muscles into compliance sounded like a marvelous idea, so he stumbled back to Jared’s front porch to use his steps instead of getting the seat of his pants wet by sitting in the now dew covered lawn.

Somewhere between practically pummeling on the knot in his calf and taking a short break to relax his aching shoulders, Jensen fell asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What the fuck did Chad let that bartender put in my drink?” were the words that woke Jensen up.

Given that he hadn’t intended to fall asleep where he did, and he hadn’t expected to be woken up by a human voice when he did fall asleep at the somewhere that wasn’t where he was currently at, Jensen felt that the sinking feeling in his stomach was completely justified.

He pointedly did not open his eyes because if he opened his eyes, he was going to see Jared, and he just never wanted to lay eyes on the man again.

“Jensen,” Jared’s voice crooned in Jensen’s ear. He could smell the alcohol on Jared’s breath, and silently he cursed the new boyfriend for getting his Jared all liquored up. The bastard probably did it to get some sort of kinky sex out of Jared.

Chad no doubt had extremely deviant tastes and had needed booze and possibly illicit drugs to get it from sweet, loving Jared. Then, because Chad was obviously a jerk, he’d dropped Jared off at home without even escorting him to his door for a proper kiss goodnight.

A giant hand hesitantly patted at the top of Jensen’s head. “Oh, Jensen. God.” Jared’s voice sounded choked and a little lost. His hand moved from patting just the top of Jensen’s head to clumsily stroking over his face, neck and shoulders before moving farther south.

Jared’s hands were gentle, but when he slid his hands over Jensen’s very sore legs, Jensen couldn’t suppress a twitch of pain.

“Jensen? You in there, Babe?” Jared’s voice was suddenly filled with excitement.

There was no way that Jensen was going to get out of the situation without talking to Jared, so he cracked an eye open and said, “Where else would I be?”

Jared didn’t answer him verbally at first. He just threw his gigantic arms around Jensen’s shoulders, buried his face in Jensen’s neck and started crying.

“You came back. You came home to me.” He sobbed against the collar of Jensen’s filthy and gross smelling shirt.

“Yeah, okay. Look, you’re drunk and…”

“I looked for you for so long - everyday going out on that boat and calling for you. Gonna take such good care of you now that you’re here. Make you never, ever want to leave me again. I’m going to fucking buy the best organic vegetables and learn to make dolphin sounds or something. And I’m gonna figure out a way to make our sex better. Blow your mind so often that your dick overrules it all the time and decides it can’t live without my mad skills.” Jared continued on oblivious of Jensen’s interruption.

“Triton, Jared. How much have you had to drink?”

“Don’t know, don’t care. I’ve got you back home.”

“Okay, well, why don’t you go inside and sleep it off?”

Jared leaned back a bit. His glassy pupils spoke volumes for how inebriated he was. He nodded enthusiastically and fumbled with the lock, practically dragging Jensen inside when the tumblers finally slid into place. The dogs barked and yapped excitedly around their feet, but Jared uncharacteristically ignored them in favor of heading towards his own bed.

He flopped down on it, still fully clothed, and while Jensen didn’t think that he had intended it, Jared passed out.

With a sigh, Jensen left him there and went to go let the dogs outside. He could leave, but that seemed like a bad thing to do to a guy that was going to have a monster of a hangover in the morning. Jensen had never been one for imbibing in the fermented seaweed pools like some of his other merfolk buddies, but he’d seen the results the next day.

He’d never seen Jared drunk, but it was a good bet that humans didn’t bear up much better.

As Jensen had always been a particularly welcome houseguest before, he’d never had occasion to sleep on the sofa. But Jared had always insisted it was very ‘comfy for napping on,’ and Jensen didn’t want to unload the piles of junk that he just knew Jared had on the guest bedroom bed.

So he dug out some sheets from Jared’s linen closet, taking only a slight moment to marvel at being able to reach the high up shelves, and made a nest on the soft cushions of the couch.

After getting the dogs in, and suffering with one curling up right behind his legs and the other flopping down on the floor beside him, Jensen drifted off into his own sleep.

It was a little surprising that he woke before Jared, but Jensen had been waking with the dawn for weeks on end. Daylight was prime traveling time, and early morning meant less traffic to deal with when he had to walk along a road.

Not quite trusting himself to figure out the shower and how to stand upright in it, Jensen drew a bath in the small tub that the actual bathroom boasted, firmly ignoring the hot tub that held so many happy memories for him. He desperately wanted to shave and cut his hair, but once he started back in on his nomadic existence, he was going to need to retain his street look to blend in.

He still worked all the tangles out of his hair by using Jared’s expensive shampoo and lots of his conditioner. He’d get dirty again soon enough.

His clothes were partially staying upright thanks to the dried whatever in their fibers, and Jensen didn’t care to get the rash that he’d develop if he put them on right after a shower, so he stole two of Jared’s fluffiest towels and wrapped one around his waist and the other around his shoulders to soak up the excess water from his hair.

He fed the dogs and ate the entire bag of carrots that Jared had sitting in his refrigerator.

The only announcement that he had of Jared’s awakened state was the sound of the man running to the bathroom to relieve himself of the previous night’s activities.

“Okay, kids. You’re going to have to go easy on Daddy today. He went out with Uncle Chad and was a very bad role model for you. Daddy is sick, and might have been imagining totally heartbreaking things last night, so you need to be good little puppies and not bark.” Jared rambled after the sound of the toilet flushing quieted.

Harley and Sadie were curled up at Jensen’s feet looking distinctly unimpressed. They perked up at their master’s voice, but plopped their heads back down in boredom after Jared finished speaking.

Well, Harley did. Sadie barked.

“Fuck,” Jared moaned as he stumbled into the kitchen.

“They do call them bitches for a reason.” Jensen pointed out.

Jared wheezed out a laugh. “Yeah, they d… JENSEN?!”

“Uh, yeah?”

“You’re home, really? But… And you have legs? And, baby…” Jared trailed off as he wrapped his arms around Jensen in a bear hug, causing the dogs to scamper out of his way lest he trample on delicate paws and tails.

“I thought I dreamed it all up. I imagined you back home so many times, but they were always just dreams and fantasies.”

“Jared let go of me.” Jensen managed to make himself say.

Jared jerked back, surprise written all over his face. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m not staying.”

Jared’s eyes looked hurt for a moment before his face settled into a determined scowl. “You’re not leaving me again.”

“I’m not breaking you up with your boyfriend,” Jensen corrected. “I don’t think he’d be very happy with me horning in on his man and his niece and nephew.”

“What boyfriend?”

“The one you were making eyes at last night! The one who was holding your hand and making you laugh and getting my smiles. Don’t lie to me, Jared! I’m not stupid.” Jensen snarled as he pushed around the man.

“The man I was with… You saw me last night, and you didn’t say anything?”

“What was I supposed to say?”

“How about, ‘Hey Jared, my homophobic relatives didn’t kill me’? Or maybe, ‘Dude look, I’ve got feet!’”

“And what? Get laughed at by that, that bottom feeder you’re dating? Embarrass myself by begging you to take me back while you’ve got a real human wining and dining you?”

“I don’t have a fucking boyfriend! Jesus, Jensen! There hasn’t been anybody since you. How could there be when you smashed my whole damn world when you left me?”

“Yeah? And what about Mr. Car Paint? Huh? Chad the beady-eyed bastard?” Jensen spat, far more judgmentally that he had promised himself he would.

“Car… that was you? Last night? You were right there, and you didn’t… Why didn’t you…”

“Why didn’t the homeless man go up to you while you were standing next to that jerk?”

Jared’s face lost a little color, and he shook his head. “I know that he’s a jerk, and I swear I’ll make him apologize. I’ll make him buy you roses and celery and that little baby spinach that you like. But Jensen, Chad’s not my boyfriend. He’s my lawyer. He just was trying to cheer me up, and maybe get me to sell this place to some real estate developers, but mostly he was trying to get me out of the dumps.”

Jensen peered at Jared suspiciously. “Yeah?”

“I swear it. I have better taste than that.”

“He was holding your hand.” Jensen pointed out.

“Because he was doing an impersonation of how I should be gay because I was obviously not doing it right if I wasn’t, and I quote, ‘drowning in cock and ass.’”

“I don’t like him. You should fire him and get a new lawyer.”

“I can’t. I kind of went to college with him, and he’s keeping me out of trouble.”

“You’re in trouble?” Jensen asked, his heart pounding in sudden fear and worry.

“Not much, but, uh… I’m not exactly all that technically savvy.”

Jensen kept an accepting look on his face. He was hardly the one to judge. The only use for a cell phone that he had down in the water was for improving his throwing arm. The light weight of them made it difficult get good speed on his pitches.

“Remember when you were singing to me?”

Jensen nodded.

“I might have recorded that, and I might have accidentally uploaded them to the internet to save on a private account, only I might have forgotten to double check my settings, and you might have developed a small cult following who are demanding to know your name and whereabouts. Only, you’re not human. Or you weren’t human, and I couldn’t exactly tell them that you’re a merman that left me because I was human, and we couldn’t have mutually satisfying sex.”

“It wasn’t about…”

“Anyway,” Jared interrupted him, “your fans started making some inquiries, and I had to say something which was basically that your name was Jensen, and that you’re super reclusive, but fangirls are relentless, and so – lawyer.”

Jensen blinked. “Okay, wow. So these recordings don’t show anything, do they?”

“Audio only. Crappy audio, but I didn’t want you to get shy about it and stop singing.”

“And you’re not dating Chad?”

“No. Doubly, emphatically no.”

“And you maybe still want to be with me?” Jensen asked timidly.

“I do. Nasty beard and all, but I would very much like to know how you got those adorable bow legs of yours.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It turned out that Chad was an absolute jerk, but a surprisingly good lawyer who helped Jensen make some niche market albums on some cheap indie labels. He wasn’t incredibly famous, and given his past he didn’t want to be, but the money helped him buy Jared a new dock that was made of materials that could withstand the weather and the annoying barnacles without excessive maintenance.

Jensen maintained his façade of being a reclusive and shy musician, but was more than willing to write a few songs for other artists once he figured out how to translate his songs into the human music staffs.

The first song he sold paid for getting a new roof on the cabin.

Despite Chad’s objections to Jensen losing his ‘vagrant hippie vibe,’ Jensen shaved his beard and cut his hair.

Jared mother henned him into eating to regain the weight that he’d lost while walking his way back home. He forced Jensen to try all sorts of human foods and introduced him to the wonders of the home gym to keep from getting flabby.

Jared still became antsy whenever Jensen got anywhere near the water, let alone if Jensen mentioned the word, ‘swimming.’

They didn’t have sex at first, and part of Jensen worried that maybe Jared’s sexual interest in him was all about the exotic and forbidden nature of him having a tail.

He didn’t say anything about it, but it was sort of disheartening to not be as sexually desirable.

Then, one day, he bent over to dig in one of Jared’s cupboards, and turned around to ask Jared a question only to find the human’s eyes glued steadfastly to his behind.

“Jared?” He’d asked.

Jared had blushed and stammered and said, “I’m sorry, but you have the most perfect ass. I just… I want to fuck you so badly.”

And that was pretty much that, because Jensen very much wanted to be fucked.

His new dick worked pretty much exactly the same as his old one did, but the addition of knees was awesome. Positioning and thrusting during actual, penetrative sex were great, but blow jobs were so much easier when he could give them some other way than lying on his stomach trying not to slip down too far and choke himself.

If he had to pick a favorite part of being with Jared, because being with Jared was hands down his most favorite thing ever, it would be waking up with him. Even when they fought, which was more often than Jensen cared for, Jared would wrap his arms around Jensen and hold him tight when they went to bed. It was almost as if he was afraid that Jensen would disappear in the night, and he’d wake up alone.

The fact that Jared usually woke up horny had very little to do with Jensen’s appreciation of Jared, not that Jensen didn’t consider it a very nice, very large benefit. It came in handy as Jensen quite enjoyed Jared’s body even when the human was being an idiotic jerk.

No, Jensen didn’t love Jared’s snuggling for the sex it often inspired, but that wasn’t to say that he didn’t love sex even after he’d been getting laid regularly.

“Morning,” Jensen purred as he rubbed his ass back against the half hard cock resting against it.

“Getting frisky with me already?” Jared sleepily complained as his hand slid under the covers to trail a path down Jensen’s abdomen.

“It’s spawning season. I need it.”Jensen replied.

“Gonna wear me out.” Jared told him as he started to mouth at Jensen’s neck.

“Fuck, Jared.” Jensen whimpered as he impatiently dragged Jared’s hand down to his crotch and pushed it against his cock.

“Not kidding, huh?” Jared said as he curled his hand around the shaft and started pulling.

“No. Oh, God, please.” Jensen moaned as he pushed into the grip.

Jared pulled his hand away and nipped at Jensen’s earlobe. “You naughty merman, you’re all naked under there.”

Jensen turned around to glare at Jared, his cock bumping against Jared’s underwear covered one as he pressed in close.

The human knew full well that Jensen preferred to be naked whenever he could. Clothes were foreign to him and there were several times where he just felt more comfortable without them.

Jensen knew that Jared secretly loved his supposedly exhibitionist streak. That didn’t keep him from teasing his boyfriend when Jared made comments about it.

“You keep that up, and I’m not going to let you top.” Jensen threatened. “It’s spawning season, and I might forget what I’m supposed to be doing.”

Jared grinned at him unrepentantly. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“It would be a waste of that lube I used when I was stretching earlier, and you know how I hate being wasteful.”

Jared growled and rolled on top of Jensen, his slim hips slotting easily between Jensen’s legs.

Jensen wouldn’t give up their first times together for anything, but having legs had greatly improved his sex life.

While Jared kissed him, morning breath and all, Jensen shoved his hands under the waistband of Jared’s briefs and shoved them down, causing Jared’s cock to pop free of its confines.

“So eager,” Jared mumbled against Jensen’s lips as he moved back to finish ridding himself of his clothing. The blankets got kicked out of the way as he moved, and Jensen was treated to a view of Jared’s body. Almost lazily, Jensen took hold of his now very human looking penis and began to stroke it.

Jared batted the hand away and hitched Jensen’s legs up around his waist. They’d done it enough times that Jared found his entrance easily.

“Ungh,” Jensen groaned at the penetration, his cock starting to drip in its excitement. “So big.”

“God, you’re always tight. Always hot.” Jared moaned as he pushed in further.

“Fuck me.” Jensen whispered the instant that Jared was fully sheathed.

Jared obeyed almost instantly, setting an almost brutal pace with his thrusts. It was hard and fast and exactly what Jensen’s body was demanding. Slow and long wasn’t what it needed when it wanted to spawn.

Jensen tilted his hips a little more, and Jared’s hands came down on them to help them maintain the angle. The cock inside of him kept hitting Jensen’s prostate with unnerving accuracy. Reaching between his legs, Jensen grabbed hold of his cock again and gave it a couple of tugs, moaning as he began to spill over his own fist, balls gushing out an abnormally large amount of his still pearlescent come.

Jared followed a minute later, grunting and swearing before pulling out.

Flopping down on the bed next to Jensen, Jared leaned in for another quick kiss. “You’re amazing.”

Jensen smiled at him and shook his head. “Yes, we are.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

END


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